No, Not Everything is Political

Okay, stop laughing.  I know that headline seems slightly ironic coming from me.  There have been numerous very political posts on this blog in its ten years, which I will address in due time.

But even I know it is a mistake to politicize everything or to see everything as political.  Further, that can lead into grievous error.  The 20^th Century heresy of Liberation Theology comes to mind, in which the Gospel of the Kingdom was mangled into a Marxist message.  Politicizing everything can lead to bad art and literature as well. (Yes, I do think there is such a thing.)  Some of the absurd and even obscene performance art of recent decades is a case in point . . . funded by your taxes, of course.  (There I go being political again!)

Which leads me to my novel, Pilot Point.  It may surprise some readers to be informed it is not a political novel.  Further, it is virtually devoid of political content.  (The only reason I do not assert it has no political content at all is that I know I can be very political.  So, considering the author, something political may have slipped in that I did not notice or cannot remember.)

I think Pilot Point would have been harmed by any significant political content.  If I may say so, it is a subtle, painterly novel in which the “still small voice” would have been drowned out by any trumpets of politics.  And my purposes in writing it were far removed from politics.

Now, as for this blog, when I began it ten years ago, I did not intend for it to become as political as it has.  But I cannot deny it did and that for two reasons:

1. I find politics interesting.  So there.

2. As the election of Obama approached in 2008, I saw that with my experience I was better equipped than most to see what was coming and to warn of it.  And, along with numerous other bloggers, I felt it was my duty to inform and warn as the “mainstream” news media had put aside its role of informing for the purpose of propagandizing.

I never did presume that my warnings would make that much of a difference.  But I felt it was my duty nonetheless, not unlike the watchman of Ezekiel 33.

But if the danger to this country diminishes significantly, I will likely reduce the political content of this blog.  Likewise if this country becomes so far gone that it is time to give it over to its own devises.  Because some things are more important than politics, much more, and I do not want my political bent to distract from that.

In fact, I am already pulling back a bit from political content here, believe it or not.  My twitter account is frequently an outlet for my political ranting, and I often decide to leave it there and not bring it here.  So if you just can’t get enough of my ranting . . .

But, yes, although I seem at times not to recognize it, politics is not everything, and not everything is political.